Atalanta of Athens
Atalanta was the daughter of Shoeneus or Iasius and Clymene, the former who wanted a son so badly that when Atalanta was born, he left her on a mountain top to die. Overview Atalanta of Athens is a rather large and strapping girl with long blonde hair held back in a pony tail, she tends to pose quite an imposing figure to most men, especially when they get a good look at her near-naked body, which is hot, well tanned and oily from many hours spent working a hammer next to a hot forge. Though plainly feminine, her muscles ripple like those of a man, and which none could fault her well-curved figure, there are few who would describe her as “dainty.” Though she was born as the princess of Arcadia, Atalanta was abandoned in the mountain, but she survived thanks to divine protection from Artemis who took the form of a "she-bear" to suckle Atalanta bestowing upon the infant girl a portion of her divine essence). A lot of violent anti-male bias had also been put into the girl’s head by the occasional rantings and even more frequent diatribes of her Artemis had obviously left its mark in Atalanta. When she was still young, a group of hunters found her and trained her to be an excellent huntress before returning her to her mother who tried to teach me normal feminine ways. By this time, having been sent away from court, she’d taken up residence with her father, who taught Atalanta a useful trade in Smithing. When her father discovered that his child was still alive he had repented of her abandonment and had seemed to welcome her home with open arms, only to reveal later that he had betrothed Atalanta---without her knowledge--- to a boy who alone had beaten her in combat. He gave Atalanta an option to back out of the engagement, of course, but only if she would let him choose another match more to his liking with one of the various Princes of the region. While Atalanta agreed she later found out that those Golden Apples, which had been the prize for their race, had probably been squandered by his Satyr guardian for some food and fun on the sidelines She was also the fastest runner in Greece. When a wild boar, sent by Artemis when forgotten at a sacrifice by King Oineus, ravaged the land, destroyed men and cattle and prevented the crops from being sown, Atalanta joined Meleager and many other famous heroes others on a hunt. Many of the men were angry to have a woman in the party, but Meleager (who, though married, lusted after Atalanta) persuaded them to allow Atalanta. Several of the men were killed before Atalanta wounded the boar, allowing Meleager to kill it with his spear. Since her strike drew first blood, Meleager awarded the boar skin to Atalanta. Meleager's uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus, were angry and tried to take the skin from Atalanta. In his anger, Meleager killed his uncles, and Meleager's mother in turn killed him for the murder of her brothers, After the Calydonian Boar Hunt, set up a smith workshop and was accosted by Bronze Smiths and Copper Smiths who resented the competition. Sometimes they had made an effort to try and close the Smith’s workshop down, risking the wrath of King and God alike. They would send their bully boys in to try and force the issue. After her father’s death the current king of Athens her uncle Aegius sent his men to bring her to court to pay her respect. He informed her that Athens had fallen on hard times her father bled the treasury through bribes and kickbacks forcing King Aegius to borrow some money from the Cretans. Because of this King Midas requested that Atalanta marry his son Androgynous. Atalanta was possessed by Aphrodite in the battle to win Herakle’s heart. It was not hard for Aphrodite to not-so-humbly manipulate those currents in her mind so that Atalanta’s memories became less contentious or Anti-Herakles, (even if Aphrodite were to allow a certain anti-male bias to otherwise remain) just to make it easier later to have the girl fall in love with her childhood sweetheart. Abilities Atalanta had lived quite an active life inside and outside of training, and she had mastered the difficult art of Pankratia--- Grecian Wrestling---by first studying and then beating the boys she met at their own game, and thus gaining quite the reputation as a man-killer…literally. Her favorite sport was to challenge the men she encountered to a Pentathlon of challenges, first racing then archery then throwing discus, then vaulting high obstacles and lastly facing off in a wrestling match, where she always wound up the winner…that being as much due to her divinely bolstered strength as to her skill and determination as a fighter. When she won against a man she would either break their backs or in some other way humble them so that it would spread the reputation about her to other would-be challengers that there was a price to be paid for going up against Atalanta. Category:Continuum-59343921